Maybe my reading comprehension skills are low but it sound like you have some serious misconceptions about what JSON actually is -- it's just string data -- a way of representing data -- similar to serialized Data::Dumper output. You still need Javascript to get the data to/from the browser/server (at least if you want it to happen asynchronously) and you still need Javascript to add client-side behaviour to the data. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the web2 frameworks. JQuery has pretty much won that battle and Bootstrap is a nice layer on top of it. Other battles are looming but I'll let some blood spill before choosing sides. There is nothing inherently wrong with writing all your JS from scratch but that's a lot of wheel to re-invent and I'd rather spend my time elsewhere.